A "Blockchain" Synergy in Conductive Polymer-Filled Metal-Organic Frameworks for Dendrite-Free Li Plating/Stripping with High Coulombic Efficiency

The performance of lithium-metal batteries is severely hampered by uncontrollable dendrite growth and volume expansion on the metal anodes. Inspired by the "blockchain" concept in data mining, here we utilize a conductive polymer-filled metal-organic framework (MOF) as the lithium host, in which polypyrrole (PPy) serves as the "chain" to interlink Li "blocks" stored in the MOF pores. While the N-rich PPy guides fast Li+ infiltration/extrusion and serves as the nucleation sites for isotropic Li growth, the MOF pores compartmentalize bulk Li deposition for 3D matrix Li storage, leading to low-barrier and dendrite-free Li plating/stripping with superb Coulombic efficiency. The as-fabricated lithium-metal anodes operate over 700 cycles at 5 mA cm(-2) in symmetric cells, and 800 cycles at 1 C in full cells with a per-cycle capacity loss of only 0.017 %. This work might open a new chapter for Li-metal anode construction by introducing the concept of "blockchain" management of Li plating/stripping.